ABSTRACT
The final chapter revisits key themes of the book in light of immunity’s continuing transformation. The chapter will foreground immunity’s inherent foundations in economic rationality, traced into the ancient concept of munus but also in the possessive individualism exercised in science narratives, popular immunology, advertising and health advice. The shadowing of immunology’s spectacular discoveries with what is not yet known will be used to further reflect on the consumption values of discovery quests in science narratives and popular texts. The co-constitution of digital media and immunity will be considered for the ways in which it displaces the laboratory and the clinic as sources of healthcare. The chapter will also consider immunity as a ‘metaphor we live by’, found in the experiential narratives of everyday individuals reflecting on their health care. The chapter, then, makes the point that immunity comes into sharp relief in lived experience when it is absent, faltering or when it is all that individuals and populations have in the face of threat to life.
